Originating from KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles, The Jimmy Dore Show is an irreverent and humorous take on today’s headlines and hypocrites. The program skewers politicians as well as the corporate mouthpieces which make up today’s mainstream “news media.” Each and every week, The Jimmy Dore Show provides the unvarnished truth with a twist of funny.

Comments

The whole rant about the World Cup was really lame, Jimmy.
Here’s why: just because you yourself don’t happen to understand the game or people’s interest in it doesn’t make it a shitty game. I am not interested in hockey or baseball, but I don’t go out of my way to put them down.

But keep knocking it. Putting down soccer is the kind of thing that gives you street cred with the jingoists, nativists, Teabaggers and other assorted bigots.

They love to knock soccer because it is far and away the most popular sport in the world outside the US. So disparaging the sport makes you a good ol’ American exceptionalist.

Nice to see that you and the likes of Ann Coulter agree on something, though.

BTW I do agree with your rant’s opening remarks that the World Soccer Cup is an example of sports spectacle used to by the rich to further enrich themselves and rip off the poor, as can be said for pretty much all commercialized sports bread-and-circuses spectacle (US pro and college football, baseball, and the international Olympics come to mind).

Sonali Kolhatkar’s “Five Reasons Why I Refuse to Watch the World Cup” hits the mark more fully and harder.

I think Chuck took my comedy rant about soccer too seriously. I also put down baseball, the all american sport of doing nothing, but I guess that doesn’t count, I made fun of soccer, so I am just like Ann Coulter.

Well, maybe a little context is in order here. I live in the South (as you may recall from our email exchange, which I very much enjoyed), and have to constantly deal with what I would call aggressive ignorance about the rest of the world: all the Europeans are “socialists,” all the French are “snobs,” the UN is a big anti-American conspiracy, etc. And during the World Cup, I have to hear all kinds of ignorant remarks about a game which actually brings much of the world together: after all, soccer is the sport that virtually every country plays, including the US, which has a great team!

I teach German at the college level, travel outside the US on a regular basis, and it’s just sad for me personally when a fellow American – particularly a fellow educated American whom I very much respect (and I mean you, Jimmy) – dismisses the most popular sport in the world in exactly the same way Bubba or Cooter does here in flyover country. I think the implication, too, is that we’re better than the the rest of the world, since they’re all into this “boring” game but we Americans have interesting sports.

In fact, your remark reminded me of Ann Coulter’s recent screed. If you haven’t read it for yourself, here’s the link: http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-06-25.html I never said you were just like Ann Coulter – you know I don’t think that – but your opening remarks could have come right from this article.

OK – enough of that – other than the opening segment, I really enjoyed your show. Please think about what I’ve said here, and I will think about what you’ve said as well.

I loved the bonus show it was so funny. I love you so much. I hope you are having fun at vidcon. I wasn’t sure if you were going to have a podcast up. I am glad you have a hilarious new podcast. Keep up the amazing work.

Chuck, I hear you, I thought I said how I tried to be open minded about the sport? I thought I also said how I saw it involved skill, and how it could be exciting, in fact I said I cheered for a Bosnian player.

I then made jokes about the off sides rule, and how it made it like baseball……..which is waaaay too slow and boring.

I actually kind of started liking soccer because of the WOrld Cup, and I did enjoy the Bosnia-Ngeria game.

As a comedian, I feel like it is my job to go again the grain of popular opinion. Everyone seems to be embracing soccer in the untied states, so my comedic instinct is to go against it.

I meant my rant as a light, tongue in cheek, comedic look at soccer, did not mean to offend!

I see where you’re coming from – sorry if I seemed humorless or harsh. I’m just wallowing here in Red State hell. LOL I’m a native Southern Californian living in Tennessee . . . so . . . thanks for cutting me a little slack! haha

I’m confused?? Soccer is a widely popular and has been on the uptick for twenty years. I lived in the south and in a red state and soccer clubs, soccer moms, soccer dads, soccer kids and families were abundent???

Never met anyone named “Bubba” or “Cooter” …

Did meet alot of hard working people that were looking to reduce the deficit so there kids didn’t have to deal with the debt …

Also, new a family optician that was active in a church group that took a tour of Europe …

Accordingly, I wonder if you actually mingle with the “townies” and citizens of Tenessee … The stereo-types you toss out lead me to believe that you may be more isolated to the college campus …

You seem very hasty to judge and quick to condemn .. You assignED irrational motivation to Jimmy and use the obnoxious term “tea baggers”:

“Putting down soccer is the kind of thing that gives you street cred with the jingoists, nativists, Teabaggers and other assorted bigots.”

If you listened to the rest of the show, in just a few minutes – Jimmy was challenging the tea party agenda in Mississippi???

I agee that grouping an entire country as Snobs (like you claim Bubba does with France) is silly and obviously false … yet, you do the same with the State of Tennessee?Do you really believe that an entire state or even a majority of it acts and thinks the same way? Isn’t hummanity, morality, and judgement much more diverse and complex?

Quick trivia quiz … what leading industry segment is Tennessee known for? Detriot is known for cars … Silicon valley for computers … I will update later if you are not aware …

Incidently, what is your opinion on the rising cost of of college tuition? Particularly, in light of the value of a liberal arts education? Does it need to be a four year degree? What if a degree only took two or three years and only focused on classes that had a direct impact on a kids ability to get a job? Do kids need to take two semesters of German if they are not seeking a career in language? Particularly, in light of the rising costs of each class credit?

Finally, let me tell you about my introduction to soccer .. about twenty years ago I’m watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pele. I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball and his feet. Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in – upside down and backwards… the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pele gets excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying. That’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute… let me tell ya, kid – it was pretty goddamned glorious.

I did not mean to hurt anyone’s feelings with my comments about Bubba and Cooter. I was certainly not stating (nor even purposely implying) that everyone in Tennessee is a hick. That is not accurate at all, of course.

What I WAS alluding to is the fact that Tennessee a) is a deeply red state, where Romney received 60% of the vote b) DOES have a lot of rednecks (I have lived in TN for 10 years and have yet to meet a person to deny this demonstrable fact) c) it is a “Right-to-Work” state that constantly harrasses and vilifies unions, most recently in the case of the VW plant in Chatta and d) is backward in many ways. It is the buckle of the Bible belt, people believe all kinds of crazy religiously-informed shit here, to an extent that made me, a Southern Californian, feel like I’m living in a different country.

Please also keep in mind that I am not living in Nashville or Chattanooga or Memphis but rather in a very small town.

NOW . . . there are many things I like about TN. I love the nature. People here are generally friendly. The cost of living is good, assuming you hold a halfway decent job (which is of course no guarantee these days – I’m lucky).

So there are things I like here and things I don’t. And most of the things I don’t relate to the overwhelming political and religious views of the citizens here, esp. in the rural areas. As a fellow faithful listener of the Jimmy Dore Show, I can’t imagine that really takes you by surprise. :)

7/252014 If you sincerely believe that you should not tailor your message for us feeble minded minions in great neck or Shaker Heights. Tel-Aviv is a settlement. You’re not really representing the goals that they want.